‘No Citrus’ is a fresh new band, composed of three musicians that are actively appearing in the music and arts scene around Stockton. The band currently plays small venues, house parties, and rocking the mics right here in our own backyard. Make sure to check them out and support your local musicians. For content, and updates follow them on IG @NoCitrus209.
The band is comprised of three active members: Jamie Dennis -Lead vocals/Bass guitar, Lotus T. -Lead guitar/back up vocals, Dominique (who goes by Dom) -Drums. The band is currently seeking a fourth member, contact them on social media for more details.
Dennis answered questions for Collegian.
When and how did all three of you meet, and how long have been playing music together since?
“Collectively we met around August last year. Me and Dom have known each other since high school so we kind of met T last year…” said Jamie. The two went to an open mic that night and played on stage together for the first time. Jamie and Lotus both agreed on a song titled ‘Sweater Weather’. “Honestly before that I was never like a singer at all. I was always too nervous to sing in front of anybody besides my friends.” Jamie explained.
Can you tell me about your style of music and where the name ‘No Citrus’ comes from?
“We like to say that we play Queer-Grunge… There’s so many genres in the world right now you might as well make up your own.” Many of their peers have compared them to ‘No Doubt’, and ‘Hole’, to which Jamie explains their influences are very broad and not so specific as to where they get their unique sound.
Jamie then shared the origin story of the band name which began in high school.
“We were trying to come up with a band name and I kept saying things like ‘Lemon Lime’, ‘Lime Crime’ ‘Salty Lemon’, like what if we named our band something like this? Like ‘Orange Peel’? And my friend she was like ‘No citrus Jamie, cut it out with the citrus, no more citrus, like no more citrus names’. And then I was like, “What if we called our band ‘No Citrus’?”
And thus ‘No Citrus’ was born.
“…we were like f**k it.”
What is the process for writing songs together?
“The main one [process] usually is we’ll be jamming and let’s say I do something on the bass and Dom’s like ‘Oh my god I really like that’ and then were like ‘Oh let’s do something with it’ or T will be just playing the guitar a lot and I’ll just start free-styling lyrics over it and were like ‘oh this is making sense -like this could work out’ and we’ll kind of come together and just make our songs together…” According to Jamie the band would often play and write acoustically, crafting their songs during jam sessions at the park.
“T. has come to us with an entire song before like ‘Jamie I think it’d be cool if you played this bass line and Dom if you do something on the drums like this and I’ve kind of already made a whole guitar part and lyrics’ and we’re like ‘okay f**k it like, this sounds cool’.”
Jamie has also presented finished songs for them to learn together. The ‘No Citrus’ writing process seems to be a free space of melodies for them to create music in unison.
“It’s always different but mainly it comes from jamming all together”, she explained.
When asked about if any of them had moved to Stockton previously, Jamie elaborated that they are all natives of Stockton, born and raised here.
Have you experienced any hurdles or obstacles coming together as a band within this community?
“It’s been immediately arms open…” Jamie paused for a moment and asked me to specifically quote her feelings regarding the community and her journey before she continued.
“It feels like the community hugged us. Like if they just gave us a giant hug and just like, took us in. And this was immediate support from the beginning, and it felt so- so encouraging. So that’s like what really pushed us to keep going was from the very, very beginning, people were so open.” The band has received love and support from the community that lead vocalist Jamie has expressed great gratitude over.
Where can people find your music and when is your first album ready to debut?
“Okay currently we have nowhere they can find our music besides our Instagram, we have some short Reels, [from] when we perform. But we actually just finished recording on Friday, so we got everything done and Noah’s just mixing and mastering it. So hopefully at the end of October it will be released.” Although the release date is an estimate and TBA, Jamie noted that the band will be having an album release debut at The Hatch Workshop.
*The Hatch Workshop is a free space for artists and creatives where events, shows, and open mics are often held. They are located at 40 S. Union St, Stockton, CA
*Official release date for their first album will be announced in the near future on the No Citrus Instagram page. @NoCitrus209